UpandIn

Yeah...it's kinda amazing how people are treating him like a red headed step son at this point. We've been a bit spoiled with these flame throwers, but the comp for him coming out was Rich Hill...so I just keep kinda going back to early Rich Hill. He struggled a bit. When you throw in the lower 90s and top out at 94, you miss your spots, it's going a long way. But he's got a big curve, signs of a nice change up. From what our Minor League Reporters on here, it seems like he's kinda lost confidence and then gives in. That accurate? I'm never a huge fan of taking guys with lower ceilings in the 1st round, but I still think Small develops into a 4 or 5. That's valuable. The Brewers getting the most out of just about all the talented pitchers they've brought up the past few years...we're getting spoiled. Gasser isn't helping on that count either...

https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/savant-player/kolten-wong-543939?stats=statcast-r-fielding-mlb https://fieldingbible.com/FieldingBiblePlayerTotals Yeah...not uncharacteristic for him at all. ?

Nah, it's just how it works. Bucks fans aren't about to be happy with a playoff run. I mean...I was actually pretty happy with the way they played this past year given the fact Middleton was out, but...you get what I'm saying. Once you reach a certain level, especially when you still have the pieces in place. If we trade away Burnes and Woody this year and go with a new youth movement, then I'd re-adjust my expectations. They run it back and maybe make a trade and keep their aces, then I'll be disappointed with an 88 win season and no post-season.

I kinda checked out for good with that Lindor shot. Brewers needed that game. They didn't have to face the video game pitcher deGrom(not that that Scherzer kid isn't a solid #2)...but I just kinda kept expecting the late run and...it ain't coming. I think one of the things Stearns got right in theory...just didn't play out quite right in practice, but being able to go 5-6 deep in the pen. We don't have a terrible pen like some of those Nats teams, teams that otherwise would have won 100 games had, but we're not just getting through 6 and then blowing the opposing team away. And it seems like it's a pitcher here, a pitcher there. Bush gives up a 2R HR, BS. Then Box the next day, then Williams gives it up, Rogers has been good, but he kinda struggled out of the gate. And most of those nights the other pitchers are pitching well. It'd be great if we could get Abner Uribe going and on track, get Gasser and others into the pen. Hopefully Bush can have a big year, maybe bring back Rogers(not real convinced that'll happen). And get back to that dominant bullpen so that you're not trying to push your rotation or just so you can limit Peralta, Lauer, Houser and Ashby to two times through the rotation. But, that didn't really work out this year. Just pretty much a bland, uninspired year. I could see the same core with a couple of just internal additions getting back to a 95 win team...or repeating this years flame out. Hope it's not the later.

Wonder if they might pick up Wong's option and then look to deal him. If a team's looking for a 2B...1 year 10M for a guy who's put up 5.5 WAR the last two years...this year it's been dragged down by an uncharacteristically bad year defensively. Not saying we're getting Adley Rutschman back for him, but a team that takes on the full 10M and throws us a 18 year old lottery ticket or a guy who's got a decent fastball in A ball. Surely we should be able to give him away for 10M over just 1 year.

The Feds are investigating. So...no pardon from the Gov(if he even was willing). That's money allocated for the State of Mississippi, but it comes from the Federal Gov't. Not hard to make this more than a State Matter.

Problem is...Rendon could at least still come back and play 3B at a high level. He did his last full seasons. And when talking about injury issues, I don't know it's a substantial difference. Also, need to consider the Angels have Ward, Trout and it's not all that hard to find an OFer...and they may still not be willing to give up on Adell. So they need pitching. They're really not saving money in this scenario, so they might as well hope Rendon bounces back and then they've got a 3B who has power rather than an OFer who can leadoff. I think if you want to make that trade and then get 50M back, you're sending them Lauer(at least).

If you get offered Grayson Rodriguez and Jackson Holliday, you jump on that. Holliday is a great athlete, probably, as you said, advanced, and if he doesn't stick at SS, he could move over to SS. I think you're going to need almost two SSs with the new shift rule. You're going to be playing one guy just to the right of 2nd and other guy basically like a SS shaded toward the hole vs lefties. So Holliday and Turang, that could make for an outstanding left side of the IF. That's without any idea how Holliday actually progresses. People have him as 2B/3B until recently when apparently they've been more impressed by his arm and his quickness. But that's a ways down the road. I wouldn't be against including Devin Williams into this trade for Felix Bautista from Balt. Throws 100, big strikeout pitcher and I just don't have faith in Williams continuing to dominate as he has. He started with an upper 90s fastball that he didn't have to be perfect with, but jsut the threat of it made the change that much more dangerous. Now at ~93, it feels like we're moving torward K-Rod territory. Post Angels K-Rod. You could take a year to reset. Trade Renfroe for hopefully a nice pitching prospect or two. Guys who are starters, but like Uribe, but hopefully a bit more...refined. I'm skeptical you'd be able to re-sign Woodruff at this point, but if you did, you'd be more than just resetting what you had in '24, you potentially throw out that rotation you mentioned; OF would be Frelick, Mitchell, Wiemer, Yelich and Taylor for another year. IF-I'd prefer to re-sign Jace as well, but for 2 years depending on the price. If he's getting paid of a 2.5 WAR season, then no, but 2/12, sure. 3B-Brosseau/Jace/Urias SS-Adames 2B-Turang 1B-Probably still Tellez, but Cam Devanney has really been impressive. He could also slot in at 3B with Devanney playing some 3rd. DH-Figure it out between the 3B/OF C-Quero? Probably a year too early, but he and Chourio would be close by '24. It's a brilliant trade idea and again, I think it'd cost more than just Burnes to get two top 14 prospects. Maybe a team like SD who trades stupidly, or the Dodgers who'll just have 3 more elite prospects next year. But the premise is rock solid and I'd have preferred to extend Burnes...as I've gotten into an never ending discussion about, but getting rid of Burnes and getting back a guy who in 2 years could be as good a him, PLUS an elite IFer with power and speed...hell, pay Burnes arbitration number next year. Spend the year getting the young guys playing time, looking for your future BP pieces. Maybe we don't take a bite of the able the next year, but it'd certainly set us up for the next 4-5 years. And it'd be one helluva parting gift from Stearns(as Rodriguez was apparently a hold over from the Orioles previous front office).

That should be the game plan. That, call up maybe Kobe Jones...which they won't do, but anyone other than Garvin as he's been just brutal. They'll need to rotate as the Packers don't do well in the heat and humidity in FL. Can't play Clark, Smith and Gary 40 snaps. So Kobe Jones at OLBer. He's not a great athlete, but he's physical. And then we need pressure up the middle when get them in passing downs. That's always been the way to beat Brady. Without Barnes...I guess Wilborn gets called up? Or maybe DQ Thomas. He's a more physical LBer.

I'm not worried about the DL getting pushed around. They've played pretty well. Their problem has been missed tackles again and when they don't rally. Montgomery popped a 28 yard run that should have been 7 yards but Savage came up and completely whiffed. Earl Thomas he was compared to. I don't know what he is yet. Year 4 and he's had a good year for a rookie, a really good year for a 2nd year player and then a pretty solidly below average last year.

Well...hopefully that just means his 2 days of practice will be Thursday and Friday. Tampa Bay has a nice natural grass stadium...the heat and the humidity should help Bahk's knee stay loose. If he doesn't play this week...

Fair enough. I was just thinking from the Packers side of it, he has been a solidly average(maybe even above average) LT this year. I think Quinn plays every snap at ROLB, so over Yosh. Yosh got beat by him once on an awesome rush, but he was pretty solid. Vs Minny, it was mostly Hunter. There's also his run blocking which has been vastly improved(AJ Dillon driving me a little nuts missing the holes, but Aaron Jones certainly isn't). But it has only been 2 weeks and last year he was still a pretty poor starting LT. I don't think the Packers are prepared to extend anyone at this point, so it's moot, but I was just kinda thinking out loud...now could be a good time. They also have much bigger issues to deal with contractually. Gary and Jenkins are going to force the Packers to be even more creative and who they sign, how they structure it. And you're right, how Bahk plays(IF Bahk plays)...if he can play RT. Also how Jenkins plays RT. Not that I'm real worried about it, but he was not good this past week. He gets every mulligan in the world for that, but maybe, as you say, Jenkins may be better at G. All things we'll need to figure out before extending worrying about extending a RFA.

Yes, but if he's on PUP through week 4, he's not just coming back immediately and playing the next week. He'd need 2-3 weeks...at least, to get on the field and get back out there. As for as Nijman, I think we both like him...and we have wildly different opinions of his value. You're talking Terron Armstread type value there. That seems like a lot. I like him...and think he was good for our 3rd string LT last year. Not as an overall player, still well below average as a starter, but for that standard he was really about as good of a 3rd string LT as you could get. I think he's better this year. He's close to playing like an average starting NFL LT. I don't see him getting 4/66 unless it's structured like Za'Darius Smith's contract...which again, closer to Terron Armstead who signed a 5/75 deal this past year with the Dolphins as the top LT on the market(which is really a ~3/48 deal). That was half of the best OT duo in the NFL the last several years. If he were an URFA, I'd see him in the Morgan Mosses or George Fant range. That's 3/15.5 that Mosses just signed and Fant is on a 3/27M dollar deal...except in his case, year 1 will still be as a RFA. So you'd be giving him an extra 2 years and ~15M. I suppose a team could look at the size and athleticism and really overpay, but that seems like a stretch. I hope you're right. They can put a 2nd round tender on him and if someone thinks he's worth 4/66 or something in that range, I'd happily take a 2nd round pick for him.

Sir, I read your post, I'm responding to it. Yes, a year or two ago so we wouldn't have to pay him through age 37. He's 29 years old. So how long would a contract extension that takes him through age 37 right now have to be? Doing the math, NOW it'd be 7-8 years. You seeing a lot of pitchers getting 8 year contracts when having the last couple years of their arbitration bought out? Because it seems like it's generally their arbitration years with a couple of FA years at a discounted figure so they can hit free agency again while ALSO having the benefit of getting that first significant contract. Yet when it comes to the Brewers pitchers, it's paying them until their 37 and it's paying them market rate and that's current FA numbers? you imagine he'd want 6 years, then, yeah, I understand that'd get rid of arbitration years. There's no situation in which that doesn't get rid of the arbitration years. I could have sworn you said the Yelich extension had "nothing to do" with a possible Burnes or Woodruff extension, no? Yelich is signed for 22Million a year with deferred money, not 26. But how exactly would extending Burnes leave you with no option but to have a sub .500 team? You don't have an entire farm system worth of players coming up who'll be on THEIR pre-arbitration and arbitration deals over the next six years? The Rays, Cleveland, Miami, Seattle, they're all managing to compete with payrolls ~70-20M cheaper than ours, but we couldn't possibly field a competitive team moving forward if we'd paid Burnes? You realize their revenue is going UP by more than Yelich's contract alone, right? That the Brewers past payroll isn't set in stone as their indefinite payroll numbers. The idea that there was "no option" to extend Burnes last year because of Yelich? So I guess the next 8 years you just kinda throw your hands up and it doesn't really matter if you produce aces or not, you don't even try to sign them because...well, Yelich. It's kinda curious how they were able to try and pay Darvish 125M after signing Cain to an 85M dollar deal just 3 years ago, but now, with increased revenues, not possible. Can't do it. Ok.

Saying they expected it all along is probably not the best way to put it...I don't think they knew, and by the time they activated him, I doubt they were thinking about a week 1 debut in Minnesota. Keeping him on PUP just ensures it's week 6 or 7 before he starts as he's not getting any time with the offense on the field. I haven't heard any rumors of another set back...I just think this is uncharted territory. It just seems like a "figure it out as you go," type scenario, but nothing happens without getting him reps and on the field. Then when you start looking closer, the Turf in Minnesota was SUPPOSED to be done before the season back in March, not it be replaced in-season. So that would have been a questionable decision. Chicago just as easily could have been the target as week 3...but also Yosh has taken yet another step this year, so maybe/hopefully it was just a precautionary measure. “I can get through the season,” Bakhtiari said. “It’s going to be fine. You have to just manage while playing. I’m just getting back in the swing of things. So, I mean, I think there’s normal rust and then new normal with three surgeries, so just kind of working that out and figuring out what my routine is.” To me, this sounds like a guy who knows he'll be back, but is a little snake bitten from last year, but again, I get all the skepticism. On a side note, it'll be very interesting to see how they handle Nijman moving forward. Seems like the type of guy you might want to sign right now to a 3/18 type extension...if he's take it. I'm Caleb Jones #1 fan on here and we saw a little something from Walker in that final game(all at RT). But Yosh has not developed pretty firmly into a very solid starter and an elite backup. I really don't know what his market would look like...but if you could get him back for a pretty reasonable rate right now, is it worth it? Not insignificant that Bahk will count 29M against the cap next year(23M in the worst case scenario that...the most pessimistic people end up being right and they cut him) and we NEED to get Jenkins back. So may not be possible and likely the reason behind 11 OL on the 53, but I'd hate to lose a valuable, viable starting OT.

The Vikings turf is so bad they're replacing it and the Packers said they had zero concerns about his long term future, but used terms like "cautiously optimistic," and "hopeful," about Week 1 and then TC. So I thought Tampa made the most sense. I thought Chicago was a strong possibility as well, but I'm not surmising that was a definitive plan, more just a general idea. Barry's defense DID improve as the season went on last year. And it was when Jaire went out, Douglas came in, made several huge plays(and when Lowry really turned it around). It still took Matt LaFleur publicly calling him and the DBs out and saying they needed to play more press and more man to help turn it around...a plan that was in part scratched because Jaire was injured and Douglas as a perimeter corner is better in zone. With regard to the shifting...they're bringing back 11 of the 12 guys who took the most defensive snaps from last year...the same secondary. If they wanted to play man, that's shouldn't be tough. You are adding Walker, but that's not going to have a huge impact on him. His reads should be relatively simple. A zone hybrid is definitely most difficult and I think Barry will be alright as he doesn't seem like he has a big ego, but I just don't see him as an innovator. He's a play it safe guy who gets pushed by...again, MLF and probably his players to be a bit more aggressive. Jaire is as good as they come in coverage and turning into a ball hawk as well(that pick last year when we were in cover 3 and he had one side and saw the play developing and abandoned his zone and went and made a pick in the deep middle....that was amazing.

We should remember Joe Barry was our 2nd option. Our 1st was a guy who plays a man heavy scheme. We have two of the best man cover corners in the NFL(Jaire #1 over the last 3 years, Stokes #1 just last year) and then Douglas. Barry likes to play zone. We sat back and got picked apart last year until MLF told him he wanted more man coverage. With the personnel we've got...Barry is going to have to be nudged along by LaFleur again this year. I like Barry. He's just vanilla. He's like Ed Donatell was in the early aughts. And that worked for that Packers team because you had guys like Sharper and guys who could pressure the QB like KGB, Holliday, Kampman(I don't recall exactly who was there exactly when, but it was around then). Basically...Barry's too safe and this defense is talented enough they don't need to just sit back in zone and hope the offense makes a mistake. The works when you're LACKING premiere talent. We are not...anywhere.

Pitchers who DO sign away 3(or 4 in your hypothetical) years of arbitration...they don't get paid ~30M per year on 6 or 7 year deals. They pretty much ALWAYS sign away the extension years with a couple of FA seasons. So that 6 year contract for Woodruff, that would make sense if it would have been signed 2 years ago...and then you'd be paying him until he was 34. Even if they signed Woodruff NOW...how do you imagine it'd be through age 37? He's still not 30 years old. You're giving him 7 years? Feels like the numbers and the length are being inflated as though their FAs and we're not bidding against 2-3 years of team service and only one team vs every other team in baseball. If not Burnes, when do you extend a pitcher? And sure, at this point, it's probably too expensive. Last year, maybe not. But is the argument that there are two options...early on and for an insanely team friendly contract like Peralta or Ashby or just never really bother to try regardless who it is and what they've done?

I don't even know what the terms "market rate" mean in this context any longer. For some that's the same as he might get as a FA. In the context of this discussion, I'd assumed it meant...pitcher with 3 years of team control left. And a "massive mistake?" He's not yet 28. went into last night with a 2.97 ERA and a 2.95 xFIP and...it'd be bad to keep him because in 11 post ASG starts his ERA is ALL the way up to...what, 4 something? Go back before that arbitrary deadline and he was pretty dominant the previous 5 starts, but that ASG. It's a moot point point. The massive mistake was not having already attempted to re-sign him by now.

Woah...Adames? I think Hiura should be getting regular At Bats as well and the whole, "projections say he won't keep doing what he's doing," while he sits 9 games is silly...but you're going in on a GG caliber SS who's actually hitting and really seems like a strange conflation. If Hiura was an elite defender, I've got no doubt he'd be playing regularly.

I can't tell if this was supposed to be in blue...or not. Of literally ALL the reasons to NOT re-sign him, surely...5 ERs vs the Mets isn't among them...right?

It was kinda the week that always made sense. All that coach speak or front office speak, in the same press conference that Gutekunst said he had zero concerns about Bahktiari's long term health, he was asked if he'd start week one and stated he was "cautiously optimistic." "Zero long term concerns," and "cautiously optimistic," are pretty different. One is saying they have no doubt he'll be back, the 2nd is more they hope it'll be by a certain date.

Last game they have him playing, the 17th, the box score says RF. I don't know if the MiLB Box Score doesn't reflect that.

I don't THINK so...but I can't find a clear answer. I know there's a certain number of players who can come back from IR(8 IIRC)...but I don't know that you have to declare which 8 those will be. In fact, I'm about 80% sure you don't have to, otherwise it'd be easier to find in the CBA. Just says you can return 8 players from IR and one player a maximum of two times.

It would have from a roster building standpoint...not from a standpoint of getting him back on his time line. Having him get out on the field, able to practice, going through team activities, those reps are big in getting back, getting his knee back. The one thing that just genuinely makes me believe he'll be all the way back is how he played(albeit in 30 snaps) vs Detroit last year and that was with his knee still injured and it was better than Jenkins performance last night.